Two University of Warwick graduates turned professional directors are on a mission: to take opera to Coventry.
Felicity Green and Benjamin Hamilton met in 2009. Both developed a passion for opera working with the university’s opera society, Opera Warwick, and the pair directed three productions at Warwick Arts Centre.
Since then, both have worked with companies across the country but felt something was missing: Coventry did not have a professional opera company to call its own. They secured the support of Arts Council England and HighTime was born.
Stage director Felicity Green said, “we want to shatter the myth that opera is elitist, and that you need a vast concert hall and millions of pounds to create amazing productions. HighTime translates work into English and produces fun, modern music-theatre of the highest standard that everyone can enjoy.
“We want to give people a really enjoyable, magical evening out and we think that by updating the classic fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, we’ll do just that.”
Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel will be sung in a new English translation produced with Kit Hesketh Harvey.
Keen to instil a love of the arts in the younger generation, HighTime is giving 60 children from schools across Coventry their first taste of opera, with the chance to perform in the chorus.
Hansel and Gretel will be performed in the B2 auditorium at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry from Thursday until Saturday.